• NBA star and presidential hopeful share California ties
• American men open Olympic campaign on Sunday

USA basketball star Stephen Curry threw his support behind Kamala Harris’s bid for the White House on Thursday and said he believed a successful US Olympic campaign could help unite a divided nation in the run-up to America’s bitterly contested presidential election.

The four-time NBA champion and Olympic debutant, back in the national team for the first time in a decade, spoke warmly about Harris, a former California senator who was born in Oakland and is a longtime supporter of Curry’s Golden State Warriors.

• Day-by-day guide | Bookmark: medal table , results
• Sign up for our Paris 2024 briefing | And email Yara

Before we get to today’s action, let’s take a quick look at Team GB’s medal hopes. We are looking at a possible battle for the ages in the men’s 1500m, world champions in the women’s lightweight double sculls and a chance for some skateboarding glory.

Here’s Ben Bloom with more.

Containing Brenda Banda will be the USWNT’s biggest challenge in Nice. But Naomi Girma leads a group capable of shutting down the most potent attacks

While Paris prepares for the official Olympic kickoff on Friday, an immovable object will collide with an unstoppable force.

The venue is Nice, the coastal city that hosted the final stage of the Tour de France a few days ago and is one of the hosts for the Olympic soccer tournament. On Thursday, that’s where the enigmatic US women’s soccer team will face an upstart team from Zambia.

• Utah city also hosted Winter Olympics in 2002
• New French government must seal bid for 2030

Salt Lake City will be an Olympics host again after the IOC formally awarded the 2034 Winter Games to the United States bid on Wednesday. The French Alps was also named as the host for the 2030 Games, though with conditions attached and signoff required from whoever is the next prime minister of France.

Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah, was the lone contender the Olympic committee was considering for 2034. Climate change and high operational costs have reduced the number of cities willing and able to welcome the Winter Games. Utah has capitalized on low interest elsewhere, pitching itself to Olympic officials as an enthusiastic repeat host if the committee goes forward with a proposed permanent rotation of Winter Olympic cities. Olympic Games executive director Christophe Dubi had said Salt Lake City would be a prime candidate for such a plan.

• Day-by-day guide | Bookmark: medal table , results
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When Paris’s gigantesque , city-centre Olympic Games opening ceremony begins on Friday night, with boats full of athletes gliding side by side down the River Seine in a configuration not seen since the days of King Louis XV, there is more at stake than France’s global image.

The president, Emmanuel Macron, who has promised the Olympics will “light up people’s hearts” in a “summer of French pride”, is depending on the Games to restore morale in a deeply divided nation, which only weeks ago he had warned could be facing “civil war” .

The 6ft 2in USA basketball star’s secret to success is keeping his motion the same every time. Here’s how to emulate his accuracy and consistency

For almost the entire history of basketball, the No 1 thing that would help a person succeed was height. From Wilt Chamberlain to Shaquille O’Neal, the taller a player, the better. While size still matters, thanks to the talent of the 6ft 2in guard Stephen Curry, shooting is prized as much as any other attribute. The four-time NBA champion and two-time MVP is bringing his shooting ability to the Olympics.

Ever since Curry became a sensation thanks to his three-point marksmanship – he is the NBA’s all-time leader in three-pointers and attempts and a career 42.6% from beyond the arc despite myriad difficult shots – kids from New York City to Oakland have been taking their basketballs away from the rim and out behind the three-point line to shoot like Steph. But is it possible for anyone to emulate? If you ask Basketball Hall of Famer and former WNBA Coach of the Year Michael Cooper there are ways to try.

The NBA’s midsummer party was full of intrigue despite a draft class underwhelming as far as superstar talent. Our correspondent in the desert empties her notebook

By the time draft night arrived, it was pretty widely understood that the Atlanta Hawks, in possession of the No 1 pick for the first time since 1975, were going to select Zaccharie Risacher, anointing him as the secondnd annual French Beanpole King of the Draft. Risacher, though, is no Victor Wembanyama . And just because the pick was widely predicted doesn’t mean that it was widely agreed upon. Several draft boards (including that of Kevin O’Connor of the Ringer ) had Kentucky’s Reed Sheppard, a guard who ended up in Houston with the third overall pick, as their choice for best prospect, and his time in Vegas showcased why they appear to have been correct. Sheppard, while slightly undersized at 6ft 3in, was damned impressive in his minutes in Sin City: a sharpshooter with an extremely high basketball IQ for his age, he looked positively comfy in his first NBA minutes. By the end of the week, execs from the Wizards (who selected Alex Sarr at No 2) and Hawks were quietly doing some damage-control-explaining behind the scenes for passing him over.

• Full Olympic schedule | Bookmark: medal table , results
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Andy Murray will retire from professional tennis after this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.

The 37-year-old posted on X: “Arrived in Paris for my last ever tennis tournament. Competing for Great Britain [has] been by far the most memorable weeks of my career and I’m extremely proud to get do it one final time!”

• 19-year-old joins Premier League club on six-year contract
• Teenager is expected to join Strasbourg on loan

Chelsea have completed a deal to sign US national team left-back Caleb Wiley for a reported £8.5m.

The 19-year-old will join Chelsea from Major League Soccer’s Atlanta United on a six-year contract. After agreeing terms on a long-term contract, Wiley is expected to join Strasbourg on loan for a season, the Ligue 1 club who are part of the same Blueco ownership group as Chelsea.